Smile Empty Soul

Rooted in Santa Clarita, California, Smile Empty Soul has built its American rock career around one constant, vocalist and guitarist Sean Danielsen. The band formed in 1998 when he, bassist Ryan Martin and drummer Derek Gledhill were still at different high schools in the area. Danielsen is the only founding member still active, and he remains the band's chief songwriter, frontman and leader.

After hometown shows and a run on the Sunset Strip, a demo reached John Parker of ThroBack Records, which led to a deal with Lava Records. The self-titled debut appeared on 27 May 2003, with singles ‘Bottom of a Bottle’, ‘Nowhere Kids’ and ‘Silhouettes’, and was certified gold by March 2005. When Lava declined to release the follow-up, Anxiety, the band moved to Bieler Bros. Records and issued Vultures in October 2006, which entered the Billboard 200 at No. 169. Consciousness (2009) and 3's (2012) followed, and the recent output has been acoustic and EP material, including a 2020 EP recorded as a duo.